Beach competition helps charities

NEWPORT BEACH — It looked like a cross between a kiddie pool and a monster truck rally. Six huge contraptions with pedals, steering rods and colorful plastic wheels lined the shore at the Newport Dunes Resort, their wheels pointed toward the bay. Behind them, six teams crowded the waterline and waited for the referee to blow her whistle.

The signal arrived and the teams pushed their vehicles into the water, pedaling furiously around a course marked with a pair of buoys. When the winning team touched the shore again, its members cheered and exchanged high-fives — and the Hines real estate company in Irvine was the water-tricycle champion of this year’s Challenge for Children.

The seventh annual event, hosted by Buchanan Street Partners and the Orange County United Way, raises funds for a number of children’s charities — in particular Success By 6, a United Way campaign to promote health and school readiness for children 6 and younger. Forty-eight real estate firms faced off at Newport Dunes on Friday, competing in volleyball, basketball, kayaking and Aqua-Cycle racing.

So how did sports compare to a long day in the office?

“It’s harder,” said Hines project manager Dusty Harris, his legs sore from pedaling. “Way harder. Those trikes are not easy.”

The Challenge this year raised $573,000 for four charities: Success By 6, Big Brothers Big Sisters, Talk About Curing Autism and Miocean, which teaches children to prevent urban runoff. Robert Brunswick, the president and chief executive of Buchanan and the event’s founder, said he conceived it to bring rival firms together for a common cause.

“We’re respectful peers of one another, and today is really the day to put business aside,” he said.

Some of the teams at Newport Dunes wore shirts with their firms’ logos, but others, particularly in the water sports, looked like typical beachcombers in shorts and sunglasses. Alston Team, an assistant project manager for LNR in Newport Beach, said the casual approach suited him just fine.

“It’s a Friday work day, and we’re here,” he said. “I’m not complaining.”